Doing Business in Sandton, October 2017

Welcome!

Hello!

Welcome to the Megaplex Business Booster Newsletter as advertised in our longstanding Newsletter: "Shopping in Sandton".  This short monthly newsletter will give you quick tips that can make your business more profitable, safer and --possibly-- more fun!  

Learn about POPI, the Protection of Personal Information Act, with a free course advertised below.  The Act poses real risks for your business: Find out how to mitigate them...

Online Business Tip: Google Chrome "loading with mojo" Bug

(this tip first appeared in the Software Africa Newsletter - October 2017: subscribe here)

In mid-September. Google Chrome users started finding that, when they clicked a link to open it in their web browser, an extra tab opened, headed
"http://--disable-features=loadingwithmojo/", with the message:
 This site can’t be reached
--disable-features%3Dloadingwithmojo’s server DNS address could not be found.

If you have this problem, you can find out about the fix at this link.

Simple email Marketing Course: "Just Start"

Email is the easiest way to stay in touch with your prospects.  But how do you get started? I'm glad you asked!

I read about a delightful exercise programme recently: "One push-up at bedtime".

Easy, right?  Nobody can say they don't have time to do just one push-up!

Once you have got into a routine of doing just one push-up, you can move up to two (doubling your exercise!) and then even three...

The trick is to set the bar so low that you cannot fail, that you have no excuse not to.

It's the same with staying in touch with your customers.  First thing in the office, send a simple email to just one customer thanking them for their business.  That's it. No hard sell, no big effort, 10 minutes maximum.

Could you keep it up for a month?  Just pick another previous customer each day and send them a nice email (which you could copy and paste from the previous day, with a few changes).

Might that increase business?  Why not give it a try?

Small Business POPI Course by email

This free course from Peter Carruthers deals with how we small-business owners will be hurt by the new Protection of Personal Information Act (POPI).

What is POPI, and why does it matter to small business?

POPI (or POPIA) is a new SA law to protect your personal information (and mine). It's not a SA Govt conniption. Rather it is the local version of similar laws in 80+ countries. Our version has a few quirks, discussed during this course. SA needs to conform to international practice. If we don't, our IT industry will get strangled.

The Act was passed in 2013. The long lead-in time is to allow corporates to change their ways. Big firms have thousands of PCs connected to mainframes and thousands of people logging into their systems each day. Those systems, like yours and mine, were designed to cost as little as possible. So they ignored security. Not deliberately, but because it was an expense they did not need to worry about. Just as we ignore security now.

2017 is different. Massive data breaches get lots of airtime: Equifax in the USA or our current 63 million-record scandal. It's tempting to think that big firms are the only ones losing data, but small firms have breaches too. 95 out of every 100 businesses have fewer than 5 staff. We too lose laptops and tablets and phones. Or they get stolen. And if we have staff they too steal client lists when they leave. We don't report it because we don't have to. That's about to change.

The POPI Act demands that we take care of the info we hold about others. Just as we want others to look after info they hold about us.

The POPI Act has a big stick to beat us into compliance: a R10 million fine (payable from after-tax income) and/or 10 years jail time, is a good reason not to mess around.

We small players will be held to the same standards as corporates. The day we find we've been breached, Govt will want to see proof of our innocence. Until recently Govt was coasting towards announcing a deadline in May 2018. This recent breach is probably going to lead to more urgent action. If it sounds overwhelming, it is. Nevertheless, you are not alone. There are solutions...

Click here to enrol for free in the twelve-part POPI email course.

All the best from Rick at megaplex.co.za,

the most helpful website for shops in Sandton.

To view other issues of the newsletter, click these links (same page):
2017: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December, Subscribe here.